About El Momma

Friday, August 28, 2009

A Whole New World- A Night of Theatre at Our House

So, you may have heard. We had a star-studded performance of Aladdin performed exclusively at our home this Summer. You didn't hear about it? Well, here is the press coverage to prove it. Now that you know about it, you won't want to miss what we are doing next Summer. It's gonna be off the hook!

Here is the story of how this came to be:

Houston offers amazing Summer activities for kids: camps, events at the zoo, museums, theatres, etc. One of the things I was really interested in getting Bakri involved in (our four year old) was musical theatre. He loves music and loves acting things out. But, he is a four year old boy and his attention span is not yet cut out for intensive 3 hour rehearsals. So, my very bright husband said, why don't you just do your own musical? hey. That is a great idea. I'll teach the kids a musical that we can do at the house. It will give us something fun to do on those hot Texas Summer days and the kids will love it.

And, they did. It was super easy. First, I had to pick the musical. I chose Aladdin, because the kids were familiar with the movie and liked it AND when I did a quick google search, I was able to find the script right away online.

Through Amazon.com/mp3s I was able to download all of the music from the soundtrack and a few of the songs in the karaoke style(without voices.) It was perfect. We picked the most energetic song first and got to work...uhhhh....play. The first song we learned was "One Jump Ahead." I choreographed it. Which basically means when the song says "Jump" I had the kids jump! And when it said "swing" I had them swing their arm. It was so simple, and so easy.

After we learned the first song, we moved on to the rest. The kids had their favorites, but we would practice them all.

The costumes were super easy too. I used white baseball pants and stitched patches on them. And I cut the vests out of felt. The Prince Ali costume was the most fun to make. I used a child size straw hat that I found at Goodwill and covered it with a white puffy silk material. I then placed a feather and jewel on it. It really looked nice.

The backdrop was also made of felt. I drew the castle and cut that out of posterboard. We had pottery barn outdoor lights which I used to make the stage more lit up. Over all, our house served as a very good location for a theatrical production.

So, if you are up for something to do next Summer with your kiddos, I would highly recommend this activity. It's a ton of fun and very rewarding. Here are some photos of our Summer Musical 2009!

Dress rehearsal....what's in this lamp?Trying on his costume. Maddux played the part of Abu (the monkey) and the genie. Really both of the boys did most everything together.Here is Bakri in his Aladdin costume.The boys together.The backdrop.Last minute touches before opening night!The show begins....The audience (our family came to the house for my birthday and the Aladdin performance!)Prince Ali!Singing "A Whole New World" on the magic carpet ride!The end!Some after photos!Actors can be so dramatic. :-)